Gartner's 2023 Technology Trends and their Impact on Air Traffic Control

This article will discuss 2023 technology trends and their possible impact on Air Traffic Control as the European Airspace evolves.

In his recent article, ATCO and ATSEP Job Profiles are Progressively Converging, Ulrich Scholten, PhD explained the importance of technology to maintain Air Traffic Control safety and efficiency. At the forefront is the need for secure, reliable and seamlessly connected technologies.

Here we will discuss several insights from the experts at Gartner as to what 2023 technology trends are likely to have an impact on Air Traffic Control as the European Airspace continues its technological evolution.

Optimizing Resilience, Operations and Trust

Optimization will be key to promoting improved design and organization of airspace, improving operations and maintaining reliant systems. According to Gartner, in 2023, we can expect a trend toward optimizing IT systems that will allow for greater system reliability, integrity of data and improved data-driven decision making. These goals will be accomplished through the use of:

• Digital immune systems that combine multiple strategies to minimize vulnerabilities and mitigate operational and security risks.
• Applied observability that uses AI to analyze data and make recommendations that aid in faster and more accurate decisions to help optimize business operations.

Scaling Productivity and Connectivity

The demand for air traffic control services continues to grow at a rapid pace as the aviation industry continues on its growth trajectory. The inability to scale productivity and connectivity puts the safety and efficiency of the industry at risk. The good news is that there are several technology trends expected in 2023 that are expected to help accelerate scalability, reduce lag time and expand reliable connectivity. These goals will be accomplished through such technology trends as:

• Cloud platforms that combine services with industry-specific functionality that can be used to adapt easier to disruptions that are common to the aviation industry.
• Platform engineering that will increase users’ productivity while reducing some of the burden put on development teams by providing a packaged set of curated tools, processes and capabilities for both.
• Wireless-value realization that provides a wide range of wireless network services that go beyond just connectivity by supplying location, real-time information and analytical insights to allow systems to directly utilize network energy.

Enabling Change

Information technology is also always evolving and creating better solutions that support change for other industries, including training and ongoing learning for the air traffic control sector. It is expected in 2023 that technology trends will help reinvent user engagement and enable business model change for the industry with such trends as:

• Adaptive AI that uses real-time feedback to allow model behavior change after deployment. This technology can retrain models continuously based on what it learns from new data and changes in goals within both runtime and development environments. Systems will be able to quickly adapt to changing conditions as they happen.
• Superapps takes the features of an app, a platform and an ecosystem to combine them into one application. This creates a platform for third parties where they can develop and publish their miniapps on.
• Virtual reality through the Metaverse that provides the means for users to replicate their physical activities by transporting or extending those activities to a virtual world. This innovation is created from multiple technologies and capabilities.

Promoting Sustainable Technology

Gartner reminds us that it is not enough to just deliver technology in 2023. There is a need for more sustainable technology. Investments in this area can help provide great operational resiliency and new avenues for growth. Sustainable technology can be best explained as solutions that:

• Increase the efficiency and energy of IT services
• Promote enterprise sustainability through technologies such as analytics, traceability, AI or emissions management software
• Assist users in achieving sustainability objectives for their business

Time will tell what impact these expected 2023 technology trends will have on the evolution of air traffic control and aviation industries with the changes expected with the transition toward the European Air Traffic Master Plan.

We are only just at the beginning of 2023, and it is not unreasonable to believe that there will be even more technological innovations introduced in the coming months, in addition to Gartner’s predicted trends. Stay tuned for more to come!

SkyRadar's System Monitoring & Control Solution

SkyRadar is continuously embracing new trends in its system monitoring & control solution. Cyber-resilient and digital immune architectures are high on SkyRadar's agenda. We implement them in our technical training architectures on cybersecurity and SMC. Also Scalability and Connectivity as part of the major pillars in ICAO's and EUROCONTROL's masterplans are an integral part of SkyRadar's service oriented architectures.

SkySMC - SkyRadar’s System Monitoring and Control Suite is a pedagogically enhanced, fully operational monitoring & control tool. We have optimized it to cater for the ATSEP-SMC training compliant to EASA's Easy Access Rules for ATM-ANS (Regulation (EU) 2017/373) and ICAO Doc 10057.

SkyRadar provides SkySMC as a complete laboratory in a turn-key approach, or as a service.

SkySMC is not a simulator, but a fully operational open monitoring system. It comes by default with a server including various virtualized applications and virtualized servers, but also connects to simulated systems. In addition, there are various hardware extensions available including training infrastructures, monitorable training radars, or even complete ATM systems, all connected to the System Monitoring & Control solution. 

SkyRadar's System Monitoring & Control training system can be easily blended into distance learning solutions.

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